The Next Chapter - China: March 2012

Actual sign in the Metro. Trust me. It's necessary.

So, life in China has not slowed down much since my last post. I guess the biggest adjustment I am making is to my work schedule. Since the learners come to Disney English during the afternoons, evenings and weekends, my mornings and early afternoons are free and I do not get home from work until late evening. This is playing havoc with my concept of a schedule for a normal day. There are positives and negatives to any work schedule. It's just something I have to get used to for the next year.

In a classroom at DE

I was walking down the street the other day on my way to work and I had a realization. It doesn't feel weird to be here in China at this time in my life. I feel like I should constantly feel strange and out of place and trust me, there are definitely times I feel like an alien in this very different world, but overall, I have this feeling of contentment and rightness. Like this is where I'm supposed to be at this time in my life. Now, I'm not saying this feeling of right place, right time will last longer than my current thirteen month contract with DE, but right now, I have purpose and know that I am here for a reason. That's enough for now.

And now for some less deep, more mundane, but still interesting details of life in Shanghai over the last couple weeks.

Had Diversity Training at work a couple weeks ago at work, which I thought was kind of ironic because it's not a really diverse place here in China. About 98% of the people I run into here are Chinese. Go figure, right? However, it turned out to be more about the diversity between the Western culture of the Foreign Trainers and the Eastern culture of the local staff at the centers. I came away from the training with two things. One, I need to be more cognizant of the culture of the place I am living and how that affects the people I work with and the families of my learners. Two, the acronym R.A.V.E. which stands for Respect, Appreciate and Value Everyone. So, let's RAVE! (Yes, I am being a bit tongue in cheek, for those that can't tell.)

My center is so magical!

Monday the 12th was a super productive day for my roommate and I. We went by the DE Regional Office to pick up some very important documents that will allow us to legally stay in China for a year. We were also able to register our current address at our local police station because the government wants to know where you are at all times in this country. Then we both sorted out our problems with our individual Chinese bank accounts and had access once again. My roommate screwed up her PIN number and an ATM machine had taken my bank card hostage after I took too much time taking it out of the machine. Definitely learned my lesson there! So, here is a brief rundown of our day all before noon:

Passport. Check.
Work visa. Check.
Alien employment permit. Check.
Register with police. Check.
Get bank card back after ATM ate it. Check.

Like I said before, a pretty productive day!

I have also met the Assistant Trainer I will be working with for a while at DE. Here name is Coco and she is originally from the south of China. We have worked together in a few demo classes and I think we'll do fine. We are definitely people with different personalities and teaching styles, but I think that might work to our benefit in the classroom. Our new classes start with the new term one week from Wednesday. I have been subbing as an FT and AT in many classes the last couple weeks and as much as I enjoy being in a classroom, I am looking forward to having my own group of kids to teach.

Last Friday, a group of three people from my on boarding training group left for their centers in Nanjing. A group of us got together for dinner the night before they left to hang out and say goodbye. I have really enjoyed getting to know these people and am sad that they are no longer close by. However, they are only like a two hour train ride away so it will be relatively easy to plan a trip to visit and see a different part of China at the same time.

Brian from California left for Nanjing

Laura from Florida via Columbia left for Nanjing

Delous from Tennessee will soon be leaving for Hangzhou

Jennie, Candice and I are staying in Shanghai!

Brian wrote a quick farewell speech on a napkin. It was beautiful!

My group: Dawn and Rainey

We made paper airplanes in the last Academic meeting I will attend since they are held on Mondays and my regularly scheduled days off are now Sunday and Monday. We were given some supplies to create something that would fly and then took a quick field trip outside to test them out. Almost got arrested by the mall security who did not appreciate our little learning activity. Welcome to China! Anyway, we all trooped back after our escapade to learn that the purpose was to remember that sometimes simple is best. Those that just made a simple paper airplane flew the farthest, while the fancier ones basically dropped like a stone. Wonder what they did at today's meeting without me...

I am basically a pro at demos now. Since I will only have three classes (every other teacher has ten), I will definitely be doing more of them until my schedule becomes filled with more classes in the terms to come. There are good and bad things about demos. They are the same lesson every time so no planning is involved, but the bad thing is that they are the same every time. I might have to create some crowns for Dawn (another FT that is doing a lot of demos too) and I so we can officially call ourselves the Demo Queens!

I will also have to call myself a pro at the subway. Having never lived in a big metropolis before, I definitely have a deep appreciation for public transportation like never before. Shanghai definitely makes it easy on its non-Chinese visitors and residents by having all the signs and stop announcements on the trains in English. Although you are never sure what kind of driver you'll get. There are the ones that stop and start very quickly and basically take enjoyment out of jerking people around and there are others who actually consider the safety of its passengers and accelerate/brake much more smoothly. I still get stared at on the metro every time I get on and off. I've learned to ignore it now. Though I am tempted to make a funny face at people now and again just to prove how very alien I am.

Reflection on the Metro (Can you find me?)

My bedroom and the apartment is coming together slowly but surely. IKEA played a major role in outfitting it with a few essentials. Might have to make another trip to get a few more things and to have a meal. Had a great meal on my trip last week. It was wonderful! Tough, I didn't think through how I was going to get everything I bought from the taxi up to my room. Yeah, I am so not used to living in a city without a car!

Swedish Meatballs, baby! (No, I am not drinking wine, btw. It's just Coke in a fancy glass :)

Not quite sure how I got all that up to the apt by myself. It's a miracle!

My sink is in a constant state of shock.

My Bright and Beautiful Bed!

George lets me know that I am almost home. It's nice to see a familiar face on the homestretch.

Something else, I have noticed about Shanghai is that everyone seems to have a job. It may be as simple as mopping up the floors at the subway or cleaning up the trash at McDonalds, but they are working. They even have people standing on the metro platforms who wave a green flag to signal it's all clear for the metro drivers to leave. I have also seen very few homeless for such a big city like maybe four or five since I've been here. Not sure how that works and not sure I really want to know. Anyway, just a few observations of the city.

Still miss my family like crazy but we get to FaceTime quite a bit. Thank goodness for technology! Not sure how easy a move like this would be if I could only communicate by snail mail or carrier pigeons.

So, coming up soon is the start of my classes next week, a Tomb Sweeping holiday which means we get an extra day off, and my first Sunday/Monday "weekend" where I will hopefully get to check out a community I might join on Sunday afternoons!! Some things to look forward to in the next couple weeks. That's it for now!